


Like Father, Like Son

by Likemycoffee



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Gen, M/M, father/son relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 21:57:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15694158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Likemycoffee/pseuds/Likemycoffee
Summary: Is it possible to get deja vu from someone else’s perspective?A teenage!Seb fic





	Like Father, Like Son

May 2034

 

Robert could hear the music immediately when he pulled his car up on the drive, it was some god awful dance tune of Seb’s. Despite his and Liv’s very best efforts, Seb had inherited his mother’s taste in music and Robert despaired of it. It made him feel like someone was drilling into his skull. Robert had no idea what it was called or who it was by, it all sounded the same to him, all thumping bass and no lyrics to speak of. 

He supposed that must mean he’s getting old. Robert shook his head, as if that would ward off the fact that the big 50 was just two short years away, something Aaron had taken to teasing him about almost constantly, and of course Robert had no comeback. That was what he got for falling head over heels for a younger man. 

He opened the front door of the Mill and inwardly sighed at the mess that greeted him. Cups and plates were strewn around the lounge area and the games console was paused on the TV screen. Robert rolled his eyes. ‘Seb?’ he called up the stairs. ‘You’d better have got all your revision done before you started playing Call of Duty!’ 

There was no response. The music was probably too loud. ‘Study leave,’ Robert muttered to himself. ‘Should keep them in flipping school forever.’

He turned off the TV and began tidying the kitchen. Seb’s English notebook and his annotated copy of ‘Of Mice and Men’ out on the kitchen table seemed to suggest that his son had at least done some revision while he and Aaron had been at work. Robert moved the books off the table and put them in a neat pile on the side, careful to keep all Seb’s notes together; then he gathered up the plates and cups and loaded the dishwasher before making a start on folding the clothes from the dryer that Aaron had put on before leaving for work that morning. It was mostly Seb’s stuff, so Robert carried the pile upstairs to his room. Seb’s bedroom door was closed. Robert knocked but there was no reply. ‘Seb?’ Robert called and then, when there was still no answer Robert started to open the door. ‘Seb are you...’

The words stuck in Robert’s throat as the sight before him registered with his brain. Seb was lying on his bed, half on top of a dark haired boy and they were kissing. Mercifully, they were both still fully clothed, although Robert noted that the boy had his hand shoved up the back of Seb’s tshirt. 

Was it possible to have deja vu from someone else’s perspective? Robert had been here before, hadn’t he? Only he was the teenage boy and it was his own Dad walking into his room and catching him...

The two boys on the bed froze at the sudden movement in the doorway but only for a second and then they quickly jumped apart. 

‘Sorry,’ Robert said, shocked before he left the room and retreated quickly downstairs. 

Robert stood in the kitchen and tried to process what had just happened. Who the fuck was that boy in Seb’s bedroom? Robert had never seen him before. He wasn’t one of his son’s friends... although clearly they knew each other very well... Seb was kissing another boy... Robert had never once suspected that Seb might be gay - or maybe not gay maybe bisexual like him... Was Seb dating this boy? They looked pretty fucking intimate... Was his son sexually active? Robert wasn’t anywhere near ready for that. Seb might be sixteen now but in Robert’s mind, he was still the four year old little boy holding his hand in the playground on his first day of school.... when had he grown up so much? Was he being safe? Oh God was he being safe?

There were footsteps on the stairs and Robert looked up to see Seb standing at the bottom of the spiral staircase. 

‘Dad...’ he said softly. He looked embarrassed and shocked at being caught but there was something else too; Robert saw fear and it broke his heart. 

Robert remembered the look on his father’s face when he’d walked in and found Robert and Jamie the farm hand together in Robert’s childhood bedroom; he remembered the fear he’d felt then and also how his father’s subsequent actions had changed their relationship forever, broken it beyond repair. Robert felt sick. He never wanted to be that man, ever. 

‘I’m sorry...’ Robert began. ‘I did knock.’

‘I didn’t think you’d be back until later,’ Seb replied. ‘You said you had to go to Leeds.’

‘My meeting was cancelled,’ Robert explained. 

‘Oh.’ Seb was biting his lip and looking down at the floor; at the pictures on the wall, anywhere but at Robert. Robert didn’t have the faintest idea how to make this less awkward. He wished Aaron was there. 

‘I’m sorry Dad.’

That made Robert frown. ‘Sorry for what?’

‘For - um....’ Seb trailed off. ‘I don’t actually know.’

‘You don’t have to be sorry, Seb. You haven’t done anything wrong... well - maybe apart from skiving off your revision... and the amount of mess you left around here. The dishwasher doesn’t load itself you know.’ Robert smiled. 

‘I did some revision,’ Seb replied and then after a pause. ‘You’re not angry?’

‘Why would I be angry?’

‘Because...’ Seb shrugged and gestured towards the stairs. Robert could see the anxiety his son was feeling and he wanted to make it go away. 

‘Seb, I love you. There’s nothing you could do that would make me stop loving you - especially not something like that. I mean, for God’s sake - me and your Dad have been married for nearly fifteen years. It’d be kind of hypocritical.’

‘It’s not that,’ Seb said softly. ‘It’s just - you and Dad are both so out and proud and whatever and I just... I don’t know what I am, not for sure.’

Robert sighed to himself. He remembered how that was, being a teenager and struggling with feelings you didn’t fully understand. Not knowing what you are or what you want, just knowing that you like this boy and not being able to think about anything else.

‘I wasn’t always out and proud you know,’ Robert admitted. ‘Neither was your dad. It took us both a while to figure it out. You don’t have to label yourself right now; or ever if you don’t want to. You just need to do what makes you happy. Does he make you happy?’

Seb nodded and he looked so small, despite being almost as tall as Robert. 

‘Come here,’ Robert said and instinctively moved towards his son, pulling him into a hug. Seb seemed to physically sag against him with relief. 

‘I love you kid,’ Robert told him again. 

‘Love you Dad,’ came the whispered reply. 

‘Just answer me one thing,’ Robert asked as he pulled back from the hug. ‘Are you being safe?’

‘Dad!’ Seb groaned, his face turning even more red. 

‘I’m your Dad. I need to make sure, because if you need condoms or whatever...’

Seb let out another embarrassed groan. ‘I haven’t... we aren’t...’ 

‘Right...’ Robert felt himself relax. ‘And he’s not pressuring you? Because you know you don’t have to do anything until you’re ready.’

‘I know Dad.’

‘Ok. Good. So does he have a name?’ Robert asked. 

‘Ben,’ Seb replied. 

Robert nodded. ‘Well do you want to bring him down and introduce him properly? He’s probably bricking it up there in your room.’

‘You aren’t going to do anything embarrassing are you?’ Seb asked. 

‘Of course not,’ Robert replied and then as his son turned to make his way back upstairs, Robert added, ‘not much anyway.’

—-

When Aaron arrived home around an hour later, he found Seb and a boy he didn’t recognise sitting in the gaming chairs playing Call of Duty on the PlayStation..

‘Hello?’ he said with confused look. 

‘Hi Dad,’ Seb said with a smile. ‘Ben this is my other Dad; Dad this is Ben.’

‘Oh right,’ Aaron replied as the boy - Ben - nodded a greeting at him. 

Aaron walked through to the kitchen where his husband was checking on the chicken in the oven. 

‘Hiya,’ Aaron greeted his husband. 

‘Hey,’ Robert replied with a smile and leaned in for a kiss. 

‘Who’s that then?’ Aaron asked, gesturing towards the lounge.

‘That is Ben,’ Robert told him. ‘He’s Seb’s boyfriend.’

‘Seriously?’ 

‘Yep,’ Robert replied and briefly related the events of the afternoon to his husband and Aaron raised his eyebrows as he listened. 

‘He’s growing up way too fast,’ Aaron sighed but there was a soft smile on his face. 

Seb appeared in the doorway a few minutes later and said he was going to walk Ben to the bus stop to catch his bus home. 

‘Alright,’ Robert said. ‘But straight back after, yeah? Dinner won’t be long.’

Seb nodded and pulled on his jacket. 

‘Nice to meet you Ben,’ Aaron said warmly. 

‘You too,’ Ben replied with an awkward smile.

‘He doesn’t say much does he?’ Aaron said to Robert, once the boys had left. 

‘Well Seb likes the moody, silent type doesn’t he?’ Robert replied. ‘He obviously takes after me.’

Aaron shoved his husband playfully and Robert laughed before reaching for Aaron’s hand. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘I reckon they’ll be doing some snogging behind the bus shelter so we’ve probably got time for a quickie before I serve dinner up.’

‘And they say romance is dead,’ Aaron rolled his eyes but he followed Robert upstairs anyway.


End file.
